Zeal And Its Reward.

ZEAL AND ITS REWARD .

"TTTE are always pleased when we hear of meritorious V T service being recognised and rewarded . The most recent cases in which , this has happened are those of the Secretaries of our three Charitable Institutions . Considering the nature and extent of the duties which these gentlemen have to perform , the very handsome additions which

have been made this year to their respective salaries must be set down as a perfectly just reward for their zeal and the signal ability they have shown . It is no child ' s play , as our readers are aware , to be Secretary to either of our Charities . There are , in the first place , the secretarial

dnties , pure and simple . These by themselves are a good day ' s work all the year round for even a Zealons Officer . They may , to acertain extent , be said to tax the strength even of Oar Hercules , and no reasonable man will deny that their acccmplishment within the stated official hours must , at

sundry seasons of the year , pnzzle even the metaphysical ingenuity of The Mystic . Then there are the still more onerous responsibilities connected with the annual provision of the funds necessary to the effective maintenance of the Charities , The Stewards who annually undertake the somewhat

unenviable task of raising subscriptions are , in the main , a zealous and energetic body of brethren , but it is the Secretary of the Institution for which they labour , on whom rests the responsibility of directing and encouraging them in their efforts . Just as an army of trained and willing

soldiers , well officered though it may be , both regimentally and divisionally , is of little use for active warfare without a general ; so individual craftsmen may be charitably disposed , Lodges may be ruled by efficient officers , provinces may be well organised and directed , and there may be a

well-tramed and zealous staff of Stewards , but without a Secretary to advise , encourage , and occasionally , it may be , restrain , the efforts of these divisions , regiments , and

individuals will fall short of our just expectations . The result in each case will , of course , be , that the funds of this or that institution must suffer very materially . There is a falling off in the contributions . Provinces lie fallow which would

be only too glad to render help , while others are overtaxed . We look to the Stewards for an active canvass , zealously and ably conducted ; but their efforts are necessarily confined to their respective districts . We expect the Secretaries to establish a sort of co-operative movement

among the Stewards , so that their work may be conducted hand in hand , in honourable emulation instead of in disorganized rivalry . This duty our Secretaries fulfil , by traversing the Provinces far and near , visiting the different Lodges in each , and pleading—we all know how earnestly

—the cause of Charity . They gather fresh experience at each visit ; they know exactly how the pulses , even of individual Craftsmen beat , whether slowly and faintly , or rapidly and feverishly . And their advice , whether a district should be canvassed or left fallow , so as to put

forth increased strength another season , is necessary , or the annual festivals bring forth less instead of more fruit . But all this hurrying to and fro , week by week , and oftentimes every day of the week , " must be very trying even to the hardiest constitution . All this pleading and

speechmaking , the iteration of the same ideas , not unfrequently in the very same words , involves a tremendous wear and tear of the mental energy , so that these worth y labourers in a worthy field , have very little time left them for the enjoyment of rest and comfort in the bosom of their families . As _ we said in a Jformer article , they have once a week

Zeal And Its Reward.

a day of rest , and are then mostly too worn out to enjoy it . And in addition to all this official work , and the work of travelling , each has to take a leading part in the conduct of the Institution to which he is attached . He is , in fact , the executive body—as well as the official and

locomotive body—which keeps all the elaborate machinery in perfect working order . The Committees meet and suggest , take counsel among themselves and issue orders , bnt it is the Secretary with whom rests the responsibility of advising the Committees , and seeing their instructions carried out .

Thus is there , as it were , in the case of the Secretary of each of our charities , a Triple Alliance of duty —the official , the locomotive , and the executive—either of ¦ which is enough to occupy one ordinary man ' s time and strength . Happily , however , our Institutions are blessed with Secretaries of the touerbest and truest

material of which man is composed . Happily , too , the Committees of these Institutions are wise enough to recognise that this zeal and this ability are worthy of being

handsomely remunerated . Hence the additional salaries recently granted to these officers , additions which no true Craftsman will grudge them , and on which we take this opportunity of offering them our very hearty congratulations .

Masonic Portraits. (No. 36.)

MASONIC PORTRAITS . ( No . 36 . )

THE TREASURER . " He that is thy friend indeed , He will help thee in thy need : If thou sorrow , he will weep ; If thou wake , ho cannot sleep ;

Thus , of every grief m heart , He with thee doth bear a part . These are certain signs to know Faithful friend from flattering foe . "

THE simple record of a man ' s achievements speaks more eloquently in his favour than the most elaboborately-finished biography . Englishmen , especially , are averse from anything like fulsome adulation . Indeed , to overpraise one who has earned for himself some distinction , or has merely fulfilled his appointed duty admirably is , to

return evil for good . The flattery too often brings with it an endless amount of ridicule . Therefore is it that , in all these various Masonic Portraits , we have let the plain unvarnished tale of each one ' s service speak for itself . We feel certain our readers will appreciate them all the more , the more accurately they reproduce the originals .

It is long since the subject of our present sketch became a Mason . The year , indeed , in which that auspicious event took place is memorable in the annals of tho United Kingdom as the year of the first Reform Bill . It may well be that one of so kindly a temperament , having daily

evidence of the bitterness which signalised tho political contention of that epoch , wished to seek admission into Freemasonry , where all such discussion is absolutely forbidden . This , of course , is only a conjecture of ours , and must be taken for what it is worth . At all events , our esteemed

friend was initiated in the Honour and Generosity Lodge , then No . 274 , now No . 165 , on the 16 th February 1832 . Having , in the meantime , served the offices of Deacon and Warden , he was elected to fill the Master ' s chair in 183-4 . In this year likewise he joined the Royal York Lodge of Perseverance , No . 7 , has continued ever since an